


Best Travel Buddy Ever

by PinkPandorafrog



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, rated for Darcy's potty mouth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-08 23:59:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5517941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkPandorafrog/pseuds/PinkPandorafrog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy hates driving at night, just because other drivers usually don't know what they're doing. Sure enough, it turns dangerous...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Best Travel Buddy Ever

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Reallife](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reallife/gifts).



Darcy hated driving at night in the winter. Not because it was actually that bad or anything, but because it always seemed that no one else knew what the fuck they were doing. At least she was mostly alone on the road out here. There was a person in a truck a little ways back who'd driven onto the interstate a couple of on-ramps ago, but they seemed to know what the fuck they were doing. She was pretty sure it was a truck anyway, the headlights were too high up for a car. They were her travel buddy, she'd decided that, even though they probably didn't know. But there was something oddly reassuring about the lights in the rear view mirror.

But she was pretty much set. She had some coffee, there was a box of shortbread cookies sitting open on the passenger seat that were easy enough to get to. There was enough gas in the tank to get where she needed to go. It wasn't a bad night for a drive. A little cold, of course, but not bad.

Except some asshole was coming the other way with their brights on. They were refusing to turn them down to lowbeams, too. “Come on,” Darcy muttered, flicking her brights at them for just a second. No dice. “God fucking dammit!” She pressed the brakes as they neared, some dipshit in an SUV who completely blocked her vision.

The car must have hit some black ice or something, because suddenly she was headed for the side of the road. “Motherfucker!” She turned into it, taking her foot off the brake. “I'm gonna fucking- oh _shit_.” There was a tree. There was a tree _right there_.

The tree stopped the car. That was a plus. She jolted forward against her seat belt, her face slamming against the airbag. “Fuck!” Her nose hurt so much that her eyes were watering. Her heart raced in her chest, a chill stealing through her limbs. She took a deep, shaky breath, trying to place what was going on.

The car was stopped. Her leg was covered in coffee. That wasn't comfortable, but not hot enough to burn and rapidly cooling. She appeared to be completely off the road, a look behind her showed her taillights glowing at the dark concrete a couple feet back.

She fumbled for the seat belt, hitting the release. Her purse was in the back, it would probably be better to get out and get it than try to twist around for it, especially since it was now probably on the floor somewhere. But her phone was back there. She could call 911, right? This seemed like a 911 situation. And probably Jane. That would probably be a good idea.

The car was still on. She turned the keys and pulled them out of the ignition, and it was suddenly eerily quiet in the car. Her hands were shaking so badly that it took a second to grip onto the door handle, but she got the door open.

Lights were getting closer and closer from behind her, and then an indicator turned on. The truck, it was totally a truck too, eased slowly off the road ahead of her car. The driver's side door opened and shut, and a large shape appeared to be jogging towards her. Her headlights were off, so he was just a silhouette in the blinking red lights from the back of the truck.

“You okay?” a deep voice called.

“Yeah.” It was a whisper that probably didn't carry too far. Darcy turned, putting her feet down on the ground outside. It was already frosty, the gravel crunching under her heels.

The dark shape appeared right in the doorway. “Miss?” He was tall. “You okay?” Hands extended down towards her, and she took them, allowing him to pull her to her feet.

She was a little unsteady and she let him take her weight as she slumped towards him. “I think so. I need my purse.”

“I called 911, they have someone on the way.” Somehow he managed to keep one arm around her waist to steady her and pull off his leather jacket at the same time. He got it wrapped around her shoulders and led her a few steps closer to the truck. “If you can stand, I'll go get your purse. Where is it?”

There was a brief thought in the back of her mind about whether or not she could trust some strange man with her purse, but he sounded entirely earnest and honestly, he was huge. Whether or not she _told_ him where it was, there was really nothing she could do to stop him if he wanted to go back and get it for himself anyway. “It's in the back, probably slid onto the floor.”

“Okay. Can you stand on your own?”

That was an entirely different question. “Maybe?”

He slowly let her go to stand on her own. She swayed but she stayed up, so that was good. He went back to her car and opened up the rear driver's side door, his shadowy shape bending over as he looked for her purse.

It didn't take very long to find it, apparently, and he straightened and shut the rear door. Her door was still open, and he reached in for something. The lights started blinking, he'd turned on the hazards. He made his way quickly back towards her, clutching the purse strap in one hand. When he handed it over, she took it and immediately started fumbling inside. Between the jacket around her shoulders and the shaking from the adrenaline, it took a second before she was able to find her phone and pull it out. “What's your name, guy who smells really good?” To be entirely fair, he did smell really good. Woodsy, somehow, the scent wrapping around her with his jacket.

“Steve.” He sounded like he was smiling.

“Hi, Steve. I'm Darcy.” Darcy got the phone unlocked and voice-dialed Jane. There was no answer, so she left a message saying that she'd been an accident, help was on the way, and she'd call back when she got back to civilization.

It was cold. The coffee was rapidly cooling on her leg, and she started shivering, despite Steve's jacket. He must have noticed. “Let's get you back into your car, it looks safe enough.”

“There's a blanket in the trunk.” She was still gripping her keys, and she hit the button for the trunk release.

“You go sit down, I'll get the blanket.” She couldn't make out his face clearly in the dark night, but there was something very comfortingly familiar about his voice.

“You don't have to do that.” She walked back towards her car, his arm around her shoulders to steady her.

“Yeah, I do.” There was a firmness in his voice.

They got her sitting down in her car again, and Steve came back in short order with the blanket. “You mind if I sit with you?”

Darcy closed her eyes, leaning against the back of the seat. Her nose still hurt and she was getting one fuck of a headache. “That's fine.”

Steve finished getting her tucked in and closed the driver's side door before going around to sit down in the passenger side. He settled himself in, shutting the door behind him. “I hope they don't take too long to get here, we're kinda out in the middle of nowhere.” He sounded apologetic.

“Hopefully I have backup coming anyway.” Depending on how long it took Jane to get around to checking her voicemail.

“What do you mean?”

Okay, national security and everything, but if he was just hanging around chances were pretty good that he might see Thor anyway. “Hopefully Thor will be here.”

“Thor. As in the Avenger?” Steve sounded like he was smiling again.

“Don't laugh at me, he's a good friend of mine.” The adrenaline was ebbing away, and she really didn't have the energy to snap at him, but she _felt_ like snapping at him. That totally counted.

“Yeah, mine too.”

The comment almost didn't register at first, her brain was still running about two steps behind. Thor didn't have a whole lot of friends on Earth, and they could be divided into two categories. There was her, Jane, and Erik, and the Avengers. “Steve. Your last name wouldn't happen to be Rogers, would it?” That would explain why his voice sounded so familiar.

“It is, actually, yeah.” Still smiling.

“I'm totally baking you a bunch of cookies for sticking out here with me.” She'd been thinking about it anyway, but now she would know how to get the cookies to him. “Best travel buddy ever. What kind do you like?”

“Sugar cookies.” He didn't even have to take any time to think about it.

Darcy nodded, but quickly stopped as she realized how much it hurt. “Awesome. I make really good sugar cookies.”

The ambulance showed up first, sirens screaming into the night. Steve stayed with her right up until they got her sitting on the open back of it, just chatting and keeping her company.

It looked like the paramedics were getting ready to bundle her inside, though, and take her off to the nearest hospital. Darcy held her arms up for a hug, and after only a second of hesitation, Steve stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her.

“You still smell good,” she told him.

He chuckled. She could see his face now, there was all kinds of light from the ambulance. Yeah, that was definitely Steve Rogers. “I'll see you again soon, okay?”

“Yeah. Maybe I'll take you out for dinner. I promise I'm a lot better company when I didn't just crash my car into a tree.”

He pulled back, grinning at her. “That sounds good.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> For the Steve/Darcy fic exchange! I hope you like it!


End file.
